El swung her long, luscious legs over the side of the bunk and appropriated his silky banyan from the floor of the cabin before striding out the door and passageway onto the main deck.
For one asinine moment he considered charging out after her to protect her virtue. But then he realized the ship was manned by a crew of dangerous smugglers led by a terror-inspiring captain with long, flaming hair. The lot of them would have no scruples about tossing an interfering peer of the realm overboard to feed the brown sharks.
* * *
If Obadiah foundEl's attire unsettling, he did a fine job of hiding any shock he might have felt from seeing her standing on the deck of her ship in the silky banyan he'd last seen on that poor bastard, the Duke of Chelmsford.
She jutted out her chin as if to dare any one of her crew to comment on her choice of clothing or lack thereof. "Where are we now?"
"We're running with a fair northeast wind behind us. We should make the Azores in three, maybe four days."
"How are provisions and water holding out?"
"Not as well as normal, since you decided to kidnap a spoiled duke."
If not for Obadiah's immediate smile accompanying his subtle jab at her "guest," she might have made him go below to do a complete inventory of the vast stores stowed in the bowels of the ship.
"He'll bring a great price at the slave market on Zanzibar if we fatten him up a bit. Wouldn't do for buyers to think he's incapable of hard work."
Obadiah listened patiently to El's description of her plans for the duke but suspected they both knew she'd never follow through on her threats. If there was one thing Obadiah kenned well, it was the look of love on a woman's face. And at that moment, his captain's face glowed in the morning sun, like that of a well-pleasured woman.
He wondered if the duke realized how fortunate among men he was. He could not remember a single lover she hadn't tossed away after she'd tired of him. The number of attacks by the duke on her properties that she'd tolerated, giving Chelmsford the benefit of the doubt until the very last...he'd never seen her so lenient. The Thames hid the bones of more than one of her enemies who had underestimated her.
"What have you done with the duke this morning, my Captain?"
"He stays in my cabin, because I've taught him his place." At the skeptical look on Obadiah's face, she amended her explanation. "Chelmsford stays in my cabin because I had Alfred re-attach the ball and chain to his ankle after I left."
* * *
Percy had fumedand paced at first, carrying the damned cannon ball with him, periodically throwing it to the floor of the cabin, hoping it might pound through all the decks to the hull below and sink both Eleanor and her damned ship. His fit of pique was ended at one point when the crew member who called himself Alf returned to the cabin and glowered at him, threatening to chain him to the outside of the bow of the boat and let the sharks and barracudas feast on his worthless bones if he didn't stop throwing the heavy ball about.
Now, he'd returned to furiously making his way through Plutarch'sParallel Lives. However this journey finally ended, he'd either be much more erudite...or dead. He'd also been reduced to only one piece of clothing, the silken trousers his cock so loved to expand out of whenever his wretched gaoler, the queen of the seas, deigned to favor them with her presence. Even though he'd like to ignore the brazen wench, he couldn't get his cock to go along with his righteous intent.
Speaking of the harpie from hell, the door to the cabin suddenly slammed open and there she stood in all her silken glory, his former banyan looking so much better hugging her curves than as a covering for him.
"Now what? Are you going to murder me, sell me into slavery, or make love to me until I'm nothing but a cadaver?"
She gave him the slow smile that turned his insides to spineless pudding and then announced, "We're going to share a steaming hot tub of soapy water to soothe your aches and pains."
She glided close and pulled him tight to her by the strings keeping his flimsy trousers together, and attached to his waist. She spoke in a soft whisper into his ear. "If you ever try to destroy my cabin again, I'll have you keel-hauled and then given fifty lashes on the top deck in view of all the crew."
He swallowed hard, convinced she meant every word.
At a knock on the cabin door, she moved to let in Obadiah and two other men who carried a large leather-covered, metal tub sloshing with fragrant, steaming water.
After the men left and she'd produced the key to unlock him from his ball and chain, she slipped out of the banyan and stepped into the tub. He debated for a few seconds on whether or not to make her wait and then jerked off his trousers and joined her.
"Before you turn me into a brainless puddle, I feel it's my duty to remind you that you've committed a crime punishable by death. You've kidnapped an English duke you plan to sell into slavery. Whatever made you think you'd get away with this?"
"Has it not occurred to you that it's odd no one has come looking for you? There are Royal Navy ships all over this part of the world, yet none of them has come looking for us."
He nodded, his face paling.
"I literally killed two birds with one stone the night I took you from London. I had one of the criminals who steals from the East India docks, and me, murdered and pitched into the Thames. He has the same general build of body that you do, and I paid extra to ensure they obliterated his facial features."
"The river police had been alerted that you were missing, and they assumed the body was yours. Everyone thinks you're dead...and I've made it look like my nemesis murdered you in a botched robbery attempt."
Percy's stomach plummeted, and he fought to keep from suffering another bout of seasickness. Thousands of questions raced through his mind. What the hell must his family be going through now? But then again, would any of them care or really miss him, considering how he was always trying to interfere in their affairs?
